I heard a comment on the ripple effect basically saying that when you retreat you’re stealing form the ripple effect, the lives you don’t know you’re touching—those we know and those we don’t know.  Even with the greatest intentions of intentionality, , we can never know the full scope of impact of our actions or the full breadth of our reach.  We never know the full reach we have because there are times that reach extends beyond our lives and even our lifetimes.  Think of some of the names in history from Socrates to Da Vinci to King Arthur to Washington and Lincoln and Curie to Ross to Einstein and Hawking and MLK. All the minds that have impacted the world and will continue to impact the world because their words and work are timeless.  We’ve evolved and developed and expanded the theories and understanding these people shared but the core principle they developed is the same, and that is incredibly powerful to know that there were theories, philosophies, and ideas that people understood when others didn’t and they stuck with it and shared it enough that it transcended time to make its way to us today. The ripple effect can go simpler and also deeper at the same time—it doesn’t have to be a world altering paradigm.  You never know how many people you impact because you smiled at someone.  What if they were having an awful day and suddenly you smile at them for no reason?  That can change the entire trajectory of their day and then they go on to smile at someone or find the energy to help someone and that person does the same and so on and so on.

When we stop sharing our gift or our message, we are taking away from the energy exchange and the possibility of that person sharing our initial exchange.  Energy doesn’t lie and the world moves on energy.  What we see is what we are.  Yes, there are major events that shape the course of what we do but even those big events may be influenced by the small things.  The world is shaped and changes based on the small things, the accumulation of the little things that build up over time.  When we are intentional with what we are doing and we approach the world with the idea that we are going to do our best and we work to manage our emotions, we see it differently and can appreciate how connected we all are. The closer we get to understanding our connection to each other and the Earth itself, the more intentional we are with everything we do because we do not operate in a bubble—our actions aren’t isolated.  We become more careful with our energy and how it’s managed because of this understanding.  We are aware of the impact of what we do or don’t do, the choices we make and what is done to us as well.  This is also how generational patterns and energies work as well: the energy our ancestors carry from their experiences flows down from person to person.  It’s up to us to recognize harmful traits/energy that doesn’t serve and to work to break those patterns because we can stop the cyclical patterns when we see them.  It’s up to us to manage the energy we share with the world, period.

Much of this is basically the same concept as The Butterfly Effect, how actions set other actions in motion that we aren’t always aware of—there can be long term impacts from what we do.  I spent a lot of time fearing that responsibility, wanting to make the right choices all the time because I was so highly sensitive to what my actions did to other people.  Ironically as connected as we are to the world, we still struggle to grasp the full extent of how what we do affects other people.  I’m not suggesting we live our lives appeasing every person around us, contorting to every which whim someone may have.  The entire point of this is to be aware of what we do, to slow down enough to put some thought into the action before taking it—and when we take the action to be fully invested in it, knowing what we want it to do.  Be intentional.  The biggest component to this concept is that we are all connected and our actions impact others.  The same is said for our inaction as well.  Not everything we do will have a life-altering impact on people—like if you wear two different socks, no one even has to know about that.  But the universe responds to everything we do, and everything we decide but the breadth of the ripple is indeterminant.  Bezos may have envisioned a big picture when he started working out of his garage but the impact wasn’t fully understood.  So choose carefully and don’t deny the world of our gifts.  We never know what they can turn into.